The Essential New York Times Cook Book

Classic Recipes for A New Century

Amanda Hesser, co-founder and CEO of Food52 and former New York Times food columnist, brings her signature voice and expertise to this compendium of influential and delicious recipes from chefs, home cooks, and food writers. Devoted Times subscribers will find the many treasured recipes they have cooked for years--Plum Torte, David Eyre's Pancake, Pamela Sherrid's Summer Pasta--as well as favorites from the early Craig Claiborne New York Times Cookbook and a host of other classics--from 1940s Caesar salad and 1960s flourless chocolate cake to today's fava bean salad and no-knead bread.

Hesser has cooked and updated every one of the 1,000-plus recipes here. Her chapter introductions showcase the history of American cooking, and her witty and fascinating headnotes share what makes each recipe special. The Essential New York Times Cookbook is for people who grew up in the kitchen with Claiborne, for curious cooks who want to serve a nineteenth-century raspberry granita to their friends, and for the new cook who needs a book that explains everything from how to roll out dough to how to slow-roast fish--a volume that will serve as a lifelong companion.

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Found the timelines which begin each section fascinating. They clearly show changing tastes and underscore the way dishes, techniques and cuisines fall into and out of fashion. The recipes themselves are appealing, easy to follow and well organized, but that is almost a given for any major cookbook today. It is the scope and the commentaries that set this book apart and make it a fitting successor to Craig Claiborne's classic New your Times Cookbook, published almost 50 years ago.